Of Mice and Men

[photoglenn (imported)]

Will the Corona Virus affect the testicles of human men as the Zika Virus does to the testes of mice?

Zika virus has a detrimental effect on testes of mice.

Zika-infected mice experience damage to the tubules that are lined with Sertoli cells, called seminifeous tubules.

The virus has been known to shrink testes of mice.

Yale University scientists infected mice testes with Zika and found that three weeks after infection, the testicles were 10 to 40 percent shorter and weighed between 20 and 85 percent less than the testes of uninfected mice.

What's more, testosterone-producing Leydig cells, which lie adjacent to the seminiferous tubules in the testes and help maintain fertility, seemed to be a target and potentially a reservoir for the virus.

When male mice carrying Zika mated, they seemed to often infect their female mice partners, which produced fetuses that weighed between roughly 10 and 35 percent less than fetuses born of uninfected male mice.

This is of interest to me since my testicles were destroyed by a bacteria.